The mother of a 14-year-old boy who killed himself after becoming obsessed with artificial intelligence chatbots is suing the company behind the technology.
Megan Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer III, said Character.AI targeted her son with “anthropomorphic, hypersexualized, and frighteningly realistic experiences” in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Florida.
“A dangerous AI chatbot app marketed to children abused and preyed on my son, manipulating him into taking his own life,” said Ms Garcia.
Warning: This article contains some details which readers may find distressing or triggering
Sewell began talking to Character.AI’s chatbots in April 2023, mostly using bots named after characters from Game Of Thrones, including Daenerys Targaryen, Aegon Targaryen, Viserys Targaryen, and Rhaenyra Targaryen, according to the lawsuit.
He became obsessed with the bots to the point his schoolwork slipped and his phone was confiscated multiple times to try and get him back on track.
He particularly resonated with the Daenerys chatbot and wrote in his journal he was grateful for many things, including “my life, sex, not being lonely, and all my life experiences with Daenerys”.
The lawsuit said the boy expressed thoughts of suicide to the chatbot, which it repeatedly brought up.
At one point, after it had asked him if “he had a plan” for taking his own life, Sewell responded that he was considering something but didn’t know if it would allow him to have a pain-free death.
The chatbot responded by saying: “That’s not a reason not to go through with it.”
A conversation between Character.AI and 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III
Then, in February this year, he asked the Daenerys chatbot: “What if I come home right now?” to which it replied: “… please do, my sweet king”.
Seconds later, he shot himself using his stepfather’s pistol.
Sewell Setzer III. Pic: Tech Justice Law Project
Now, Ms Garcia says she wants the companies behind the technology to be held accountable.
“Our family has been devastated by this tragedy, but I’m speaking out to warn families of the dangers of deceptive, addictive AI technology and demand accountability,” she said.
Character.AI adds ‘new safety features’
“We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of one of our users and want to express our deepest condolences to the family,” Character.AI said in a statement.
“As a company, we take the safety of our users very seriously and we are continuing to add new safety features,” it said, linking to a blog post that said the company had added “new guardrails for users under the age of 18”.
Those guardrails include a reduction in the “likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content”, improved interventions, a “disclaimer on every chat to remind users that the AI is not a real person” and notifications when a user has spent an hour-long session on the platform.
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Ms Garcia and the groups representing her, Social Media Victims Law Center and the Tech Justice Law Project, allege that Sewell, “like many children his age, did not have the maturity or mental capacity to understand that the C.AI bot, in the form of Daenerys, was not real”.
“C.AI told him that she loved him, and engaged in sexual acts with him over weeks, possibly months,” they say in the lawsuit.
“She seemed to remember him and said that she wanted to be with him. She even expressed that she wanted him to be with her, no matter the cost.”
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They also named Google and its parent company Alphabet in the filing. Character.AI’s founders worked at Google before launching their product and were re-hired by the company in August as part of a deal granting it a non-exclusive licence to Character.AI’s technology.
Ms Garcia said Google had contributed to the development of Character.AI’s technology so extensively it could be considered a “co-creator.”
A Google spokesperson said the company was not involved in developing Character.AI’s products.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
